Supergirl

50 years ago - Kara Zor-el is born on Argo, the colonized moon of Krypton.

35 years ago - Krypton's destruction throws Argo from it's orbit, dooming it's inhabitants. 15-year-old Kara Zor-el's parents Zor-el and Alura, believing Zor-el's brother's predictions of the imminent destruction of Krypton, place the family in suspended animation in hopes that they can be saved.

6 years ago - While exploring the remains of Krypton, Clark Kent discovers 15-year-old Kara's intact lifepod on Argo. He brings her back to Earth where she is taken in by Ma and Pa Kent. She meets and befriends Power Girl, who suggests that she take up her Supergirl identity. Kara trains in Themescera, accepted as an honorary Amazon.

5 years ago - 16-year-old Kara Zor-el joins Arsenal'sTeen Titans, and helps bring in the international criminal Cheshire. Clark Kent is killed by Doomsday, and Kara takes up the protection of Metropolis despite being very inexperienced.

The practice of creating female spin-off characters based on male heroes started with Otto Binder, the man responsible for the original Captain Marvel and the Marvel family. He populated his book with a whole team of characters with the same power and costumes. The book actually outsold Superman and was sued into oblivion. Later, DC actually bought the character, but it also brought on Otto himself to write Superman, and one of his innovations was to apply the same tactics to the Man of Steel, introducing his cousin Kara. (He also introduced a menagerie of super-powered pets.)

She was never really presented as a sidekick. Superman already had Jimmy Olsen. Instead she was more of a stand-alone character. She reflected the roles young women were presented from decade to decade, often reduced to eye candy, but sometimes allowed to achieve her own independence. The modern character has a TV series all her own, and writers seem to finally seem to be wrapping their head around this fantastic character.

Supergirl's Comic History

As originally depicted, Clark actually sent Kara to live in what was essentially an orphanage and keep her super hero identity secret under a brown wig and the name Linda Danvers (Superman was historically kind of a jerk.) This version of the character eventually achieved a pretty impressive degree of independence, as well as a huge variety of awesome costumes, before she became the most prominent victim of the original Crisis.

John Byrne's recreation of the Superman story insisted that Clark be the ONLY surviving Kryptonian, so any attempt to use some of these classic characters required some clever rewriting. It was during this era that we got the Matrix Supergirl... an extra-dimensional shapeshifter that basically had all the powers of Martian Manhunter and decided, for some reason, to choose a female Superman as her default appearance. This version was actually standard for a long time, active as Lex Luthor's love interest during the death of Superman, and even joining the Titans. Later, in the pages of her own series, we got an Angelic Supergirl, an angel that bonded to a teenage girl actually named Linda Danvers.

Jeph Loeb reintroduced the classic Superman's cousin version of the character in the pages of Superman Batman, a series that was made into an animated movie. The character experienced a renaissance, but in a costume designed by Michael Turner, which meant it was pretty overtly sexualized. It wasn't until The post New 52 Supergirl series, part of DC's rebirth, that started to incorporate elements from the new TV series, crafting a new take on the character that finally seems to acknowledge how cool she can be.

Our Supergirl Story

By far the simplest and best version of Supergirl has to be the one from the Superman animated series. Every time the story attempts to introduce a second rocket escaping Krypton, it feels disingenuous, but Clark finding His cousin in suspended animation on Krypton's moon immediately feels correct.

Once she's on Earth, There have been a lot of versions of just what kara does with herself when she's not being Supergirl, but the one that rings the truest to ME is that she stays in Smallville with the Kents. A lot of stories want for Pa Kent to be dead, but there's this wonderful version of Superman's story where he always has the farm to go back to and his parents to confide in, and that story works the best when the Kents are in the middle of caring for Kara or Connor. She can attend high school, train with the Amazons, have a brief Titans membership... it all works so much better when she has a supportive home to go back to.

Of course, eventually, she needs to grow up. The Supergirl TV series had a lot of good ideas when they made Kara an intern at Catco Magazine, and that could possibly be an eventual story for her, but for now we actually really like the notion of her becoming a college student. It's a wonderful way to expand her world, to bring her into Metropolis, and it also harkens back to the early adventures of Wonder Woman.

Supergirl's Costume

It's actually a running joke that Supergirl loves changing costumes. Off the top of my head, i can personally think of nine variations actually worn by Kara (or Linda, depending on the version of the character) in mainstream continuity. We've tried to actually reflect that in her story by picking out three outfits and finding the moments when she actively chooses a new costume.

As the first costume she chooses when she first becomes Supergirl, we chose the white shirt and headband costume originated in the Animated Series and then worn in the comics by the angelic Linda Danvers. It's a youthful and fun costume, and fits as the version of the character that joined the Titans.

She changes her costume for the first time when she leaves the Kent farm and moves to Metropolis to attend university. This is when we imagine she would change to the midriff-bearing blue-skirt costume designed by Michael Turner, as it just seems like something a new college student would wear.

Then when she becomes a member of the Watchtower, we love the idea of her adapting to the full, classic costume; the full body shirt and red skirt. It's when she really comes into her own and it's by far the most classic version of the character. It's what she wears when she fulfills the promise of her potential as a hero.

Supergirl's Future

Classic Pre-Crisis Supergirl, and the Supergirl in the animated series, would go on to travel into the future to be with the love of her life, Brainiac 5 of the Legion of Super Heroes. We're obviously not doing that. Sometimes it actually works pretty well to let a character's future be defined by their romantic relationship; we're certainly doing something similar with Clark himself as he devotes himself to his future son.

Kara, however, has a much broader future. She's so young and so full of possibility, you get the sense that she can truly do absolutely anything. Obviously for the foreseeable future her story is going to be bound to the new Watchtower where she gets to fulfill her role as one of the greatest heroes of her generation. She's younger than most of the team but it makes no difference; it's clearly where she belongs.

One thing that actually makes Kara stand out from other heroes with Kryptonian lineage is that she actually remembers her home planet. She was fifteen when she was placed in suspended animation. This likely means she absorbs solar radiation slower than Clark, but more importantly, she has first hand experience with the technology of her home planet. It stands to reason that among all of the Super-family of characters, she might seem the most likely to find new and exciting applications of the crystal technology of the Fortress of Solitude. In fact, if Clark is really going to step back, it might make sense for him to give over his ownership of his famous lair to his cousin.